Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Half Marathon 3-4-12

Half marathon complete.

The week leading up to the half marathon, my feet and hands were killing me, almost as if my RA was like "hey buddy, I know what you're trying to do, and I'm not a fan." I didn't run at all the last week and a half, because I just wanted to be in the least amount of pain to start the race as possible.

So half marathon morning, up at 4, shower, get ready, put on my sweet running shirt provided by the Arthritis National Research Foundation, my calf sleeves, and shoes and out the door we go.

Arrive in South Beach, and then it starts to hit me, "holy **** I'm about to put this body thru 13 miles of running." Not a comforting start when you realize you still have 2 hours of non stop running ahead of you in 80 degree weather.

Gun goes off, here goes nothing. My initial thought is, my i pod will be my savior I hope, so lets try and delay starting the music as long as possible. I delay it up to the point where I'm halfway across the first main bridge/causeway. So far no pain. My hope was for the foot RA pain to kick in big time at around mile 7, and then powering thru the last 6 knowing I was over halfway there. That plan failed. First RA foot pain came at about mile 3.6. Forget about it, keep concentrating on the surroundings. Also helped that I had my friend running with me the entire time, so whenever the pain got bad, just start talking garbled non sense to him to distract me.

Mile 6 - first time I go for a hydrating station, small problem, I didn't realize that the first group of liquids being given out is gatorade, take that cup and splash it on my face and into my eyes. That stings. Oops. Soon after that, BOOM! now were in some RA pain. Shooting pain from bottom of my feet out through my toes. Continue to concentrate on scenery. This pain continues until about mile 11.

At mile 11 comes the worst RA foot pain I have ever experienced. Nothing quite like it, and hurt so much my feet tingle thinking about it. Every step was painful, and it required a lot of convincing and tricking myself to not stop running. One of those tricks was that if I did stop running, there'd be no shot of my body starting back up again. The other, "you've ran 11 miles, how pissed you gonna be if you walk for a little?"To say that my pace slowed down during this moment, would be a drastic understatement. Also, my hands hurt, basically any place RA has spread to, was killing me. Probably because my body was in high gear, anti-inflammatories were out, and everything was under attack.

As I got myself a half mile from the finish line, I realized I had a shot of getting under 2 hours. So, in spite of what my body was telling me, I booked it, and man did that hurt. Felt like my feet were gonna just shatter at some point. Crossed finish line, just missed the 2 hour mark by about 15 20 seconds. Maybe got 10 feet beyond the finish line before I basically had to stop and prevent myself from toppling over onto the ground, and just stood there for a couple minutes before I felt my body could move again. Waited for Carlota, who was also sporting an Arthritis Research jersey, to finish.

To say I was in pain the next day (yesterday) would be putting it lightly. Barely could walk, exhausted, everything hurting. But it was damn worth it. Shot of Enbrel last night, and was shortly asleep. Feeling much less exhausted today, but man does everything still hurt.

All in all, it hurt. It hurt a lot, excruciating at the end. But it was so definitely worth it. Some might say this is stupid and all your doing is hurting your body, I don't know. I do know that even if it hurting my body, I don't wanna just sit here, while I'm still able to do some of these things, and watch time pass by. If this does hurt my body, and my body will hurt more eventually anyway, then at least I got something out of the pain.

Now onto the next race...


6 comments:

  1. I can't believe you did that! What an amazing thing! I hope that you're handling these following few days well :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW, I am impressed. I had no idea what you were going through. I cannot tell you how proud I am of you. Keep writing, sharing, and you will be an inspiration to all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Way to go! I am fighting RA and just ran the DC Half Marathon yesterday. I understand the struggles. It sure is frustrating to be in the cardiovascular shape, but have your joints slow you down.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lindsay? what is your training like? how many days a week did you run?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks everyone for the comments!

    ReplyDelete

Followers